


the lights were as bright as my baby

by thelittlebirdthattoldyou



Series: iwaoi birthdays 2020 [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Compliant, Established Relationship, Fluff, Idiots in Love, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Oikawa Tooru's Birthday, Pet Names, Post-Canon, Post-Chapter 402, Pro Volleyball Player Oikawa Tooru, ok fine it's mostly just comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:34:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25405444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelittlebirdthattoldyou/pseuds/thelittlebirdthattoldyou
Summary: Iwaizumi tucks him closer to his chest, and Tooru’s hands fly up to fist in the t-shirt material at his upper back. “Tooru,” he says. “Baby. You’ve got to be a complete idiot if you think anything could stop me from cheering you on.”Days before a life-changing event, Oikawa lets Iwaizumi take care of him.
Relationships: Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru
Series: iwaoi birthdays 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1781584
Comments: 40
Kudos: 357





	the lights were as bright as my baby

**Author's Note:**

> **haikyuu!! final chapter spoilers!!!
> 
> HOLY FUCK okay i literally wrote this back in JUNE but then CHAPTER 402 CAME OUT AND I LOST MY MIND AND I CHANGED THE ENTIRE THING AROUND TO FIT CANON BECAUSE I. AM. OBSESSED WITH ARGENTINE NATIONAL TEAM OIKAWA AND JAPAN ATHLETIC TRAINER IWA. I LOVE THEM!!!!
> 
> ((i also went back & edited iwa's birthday fic to be canon compliant so read that if you want))
> 
> happy birthday to my favorite insufferable pretty boy!!!! he deserves the world <3

He’s back in Japan for the first time in - well, realistically, the first time in a few months. His mom would never forgive him if he forgot to visit, after all. But it’s different tonight. There’s a charge in the air, electric.

After so many years away, the Tokyo cityscape looks strange. The night is cold, but it’s loud. Everything is loud, too bright and too much - as if a city of verging on ten million souls could ever really belong to any one of its residents. It’s not home in the way the suburbs of Sendai used to be. It’s not home in the way his cluttered, colorful apartment in Argentina is now.

And when it comes down to it, he wouldn’t change a thing, but… his mom called this morning to wish him a happy birthday, and sometimes he wonders what life would be like for him if he never left Japan.

No high-rise apartment overlooking the lights of San Juan. No sponsorships. Maybe not even professional volleyball.

A pair of strong arms wraps around his stomach, and a pair of lips presses into the nape of his neck. “Why’re you being so mopey today?” Iwaizumi asks.

Tooru smiles, leans back into the embrace. “Mean,” he says. “I’m never mopey.”  
  
“Uh huh.” Another smattering of kisses, and Tooru tilts his head to give Iwaizumi access to his jaw. “What’s wrong, baby?”

Tooru _melts,_ the way he does whenever Iwaizumi uses the rarely spoken but dearly beloved pet name. Especially when it’s dropped all casual into their daily conversation like this, so different from the usual _dumbass_ or _Shittykawa -_ although, Tooru has to admit, those have become sentimental in their own way.

“Nothing’s wrong,” Tooru says. “Today was perfect. You were perfect.” And it’s true. Tooru had gotten express permission from Coach Blanco to skip out on training for his birthday, and he’d opted to spend it with his boyfriend instead. Which means they’d woken up tangled together - a great start to any day as far as Tooru is concerned - and Iwaizumi had indulged him with one or two rounds of sleepy morning sex.

They cooked breakfast together in the kitchen of Iwaizumi’s private suite, Iwaizumi mixing the pancake batter and Tooru, er, well, supervising. And contributing with his brand of sarcastic commentary. He hadn’t thought Iwaizumi would hit him for it on his birthday. He was wrong.

Then they’d left the confines of the Olympic plaza for a park in the city, where they passed a volleyball back and forth. _Really? even on your day off?_ Iwaizumi had said, but he was having fun, too. It was nice, reliving old memories from their time together at Aoba Johsai. Even if Tooru teased Iwaizumi mercilessly about being out of practice.

And there had been a planetarium show and a dinner reservation at one of Tooru’s favorite restaurants in Shinjuku, and they’d returned home laughing and whispering to each other, tipsy on red wine and mutual proximity. So he’s not lying when he says that it really was all he could have asked for. Six years together, and Iwaizumi still manages to make him fall a little harder every time.

“I’m glad you liked it,” Iwaizumi says. One hand, which was around Tooru’s waist, slips under the hem of his shirt and traces over the skin of his hip. “But you’ve been getting lost in thought all day. C’mon, tell me. What’s got my baby so upset?”

Tooru squirms because it’s not _fair,_ because Iwaizumi’s voice dips low for that last sentence, tone curling possessive and coaxing around the syllables, and he knows Tooru can’t deny him anything when he talks like that. He sighs. “Nothing, seriously. It’s just… it’s in three days, isn’t it?”

He feels Iwaizumi huff, breath warm on the shell of his ear. “ _That’s_ what you’re worried about? You’ll be fine.”

“I don’t know,” Tooru says. “It’s a big deal.”

“It’s only as big of a deal as you make it. You’ve played internationally before, haven’t you?”

“It’s different,” Tooru says, a tad petulant.

Iwaizumi hums against his skin. “How?”

“Come on, Iwa-chan, be real. The Intercontinental was fine and all, but this is the Olympics. It’s so much bigger - there are going to be so many people watching - and I’m starting setter and I can’t let everyone down again.”

Once the words start, they tumble over themselves to get out. “And it’s not Rio anymore, you know? It’s Tokyo, it’s Japan. And we’re slated to play against the home team. _I_ have to play against Ushiwaka and Tobio again, at the same time, and you won’t even be able to cheer for me because you’re their trainer! It’s too much, and I won’t be - I can’t -”

“Hey.” Iwaizumi shakes him a little, voice stern. He’s always been great at that: letting Tooru ramble, vent all his worries out, until the rambling becomes self-defeating instead of helpful, and then he’s there to cut it off. He turns Tooru around in his embrace so that they’re facing each other. “You’re good, okay? You’re enough.”

And Iwaizumi’s eyes are so focused, piercing through him like there’s nothing else in the world. He’s got that familiar frustrated crease in his brow, but the rest of his face is etched in gentle lines of concern. There’s a spot on his chin from where he nicked himself shaving because Tooru snuck up on him one day and grabbed his ass.

Tooru’s heart slams against his ribcage. He squeezes his eyes shut. _Unfair, unfair, unfair,_ he chants in his head, so in love it’s laughable.

Iwaizumi tucks him closer to his chest, and Tooru’s hands fly up to fist in the t-shirt material at his upper back. “Tooru,” he says. “Baby. You’ve got to be a complete idiot if you think anything could stop me from cheering you on.”

Tooru clutches at him harder. “Iwa-chan -”

“Shut up. I believe in you. No one has worked harder than you to get here. No one deserves to be here more. You’re _enough,_ Tooru, and you always have been. I’m going to do my job, and of course I’ll be glad if Japan wins with my help, but that doesn’t mean I’m there for you, and that doesn’t mean I’m not so, so proud of you.”

“Iwa-chan,” Tooru says again, choked. Something like a sob catches in the back of his throat.

Iwaizumi rubs circles into his back. “You’re so good,” he says in a whisper. It’s barely audible over the summer breeze and muted conversation below them, but Tooru hears. Of course he does. His ears are probably fine-tuned to the exact pitch of Iwaizumi’s voice at this point.

“My perfect Tooru. My talented, smart, annoying, bratty -”

“Hey!”

Iwaizumi snorts and pulls back. His eyes are so warm, dancing with humor and affection. “I love you,” he says.

Tooru sniffles. Only a little. “Can you call me ‘baby’ again?” he asks.

“Why are you always so demanding?”

“Shut up.”

And Iwaizumi smiles, leans in to kiss him soft and slow. He draws back after a few seconds, presses their foreheads together and leaves a scant few millimeters of space in between their lips. “I love you, baby,” he says.

“I love you, Hajime,” Tooru says, and closes the gap again.

This time, their mouths move together for several minutes. The kiss is lazy and sweet. Kissing Iwaizumi is heady, despite all the years Tooru has had to get acquainted with it, and he lets himself get lost in it. He leans into Iwaizumi’s touch, presses skin into skin until their bodies are as close as they can be without being one and the same.

Iwaizumi sets a hand on his jaw, fists the other in his hair, and the kiss turns hungrier, deeper. Tooru moans into his mouth. After a few seconds, he breaks it for air.

“Iwa-chan,” he says, a little breathless.

And even though he was the one who got Tooru all worked up, the asshole has the gall to smirk at him. “Shittykawa,” he says, “you’re insatiable. Wasn’t this morning enough for you?”

“As if you didn’t start it!” Tooru groans. “I know what this is - you’re trying to tire me out for practice tomorrow so I won’t be able to play my best! My own boyfriend has been working against me all this time. I can’t believe it.” Iwaizumi flicks him on the forehead, and he forgoes the rest of his complaint to whine in protest.

With an amused chuckle and a shake of the head, Iwaizumi says, “As if. Your coach would kill me, and I’d rather live.”

He’s not wrong. “Well,” Tooru says, “after the Olympics are over, I’m keeping you in bed for days. _Days._ Do you hear me?”

That doesn’t spark the reaction he wanted. Instead of blushing or frowning or spluttering, Iwaizumi… softens. He cradles Tooru’s face in both hands, gazes at him like he’s something precious. “Sure,” he says. “We’ll have a lot to celebrate.”

Iwaizumi kisses him again, chaste, and then he drops his arms from Tooru’s face to grab him by the hand instead. “Come on,” he says. “I’ll run you a bath, and we’ll go to bed.”

Tooru lets himself be pulled along. He lets himself be taken to the bathroom and stripped and washed, lets Iwaizumi lather his body with soap and massage shampoo and conditioner into his scalp. It’s relaxing enough that, once they get out and towel off, Tooru can’t imagine doing anything but crawling into bed beside Iwaizumi and being cuddled to sleep.

And whatever different paths his life could have taken, in whatever alternate realities exist - they’re all irrelevant in the here and now. Any lifetime he lives, Iwaizumi would be there. He's sure of it. And that's good enough for him.

And here, in this lifetime, soft lips brush over his forehead as he drifts off to sleep. “Happy birthday, Tooru,” Iwaizumi says, and he’s out like a light before he can respond.

(Iwaizumi watches as Argentina knocks out the Japanese team in quarterfinals. It hurts, seeing how hard his players take it, but still. He’s never been more in love.)

(He’s in the stands as Argentina plays five straight sets against the United States during the Olympic gold match. It’s grueling, but Oikawa shines like the sun, bringing his teammates into orbit around him with his jump-serves and flawless sets, and slowly, slowly, they pull ahead. Their ace scores the final point off a perfect set. There’s screaming and hugging and more than a few tears, Oikawa and his teammates sweaty and smiling wide.)

(Amid a sea of reporters and Oikawa’s adoring fans, Iwaizumi gets down on one knee.)  
  
(They’re exhausted by the time they return home, but Oikawa makes good on his promise. They stay in bed and celebrate. For _days._ )

**Author's Note:**

> oop~ looks like they've upgraded from hours to days ahaha.
> 
> anyway. furudate left the ending vague (which i appreciate tbh) but based on what info we did get it looks like argentina beat japan in the pool matches (probably the last round). then they play again in the quarterfinals, and from there i hc that argentina wins again, and they go on to the semifinals and then finals. and then they WIN GOLD because i love oikawa and i want him to be happy forever.
> 
> the 2021 (formerly 2020) olympic games in tokyo are slated to start july 23! which is three days after my boy's birthday!! "intercontinental" refers to the fivb intercontinental qualification tournament, which is how argentina qualified for tokyo 2020.
> 
> title is from “as it was” by, as usual, hozier.
> 
> thank you to furudate for everything. xx


End file.
